And so it begins...

I've called this blog 'Yell in the Dark' because that's what life feels like at the moment.  One long round of me endlessly yelling, trying to get people to listen.  Because although I can't see the world around me like I used to, I know that people seem to be sleepwalking towards massive changes in society - and that when they finally happen, these very same people are going to turn around and say....'What the hell happened to   Why didn't I know?  Why didn't I notice?'

Well I'll tell you why nobody noticed - because they weren't looking. Now I'm going blind, yet I can see it.  But that's because I am looking.  And what I've seen is that over the past couple of years, the disabled have been very cleverly depersonalised.  Oh, people still know we exist, but not as real people.  Only as scroungers, a burden, something that needs to be got rid of.  Preferably permanently.

These latest government proposals, put forward by men who have never had a real job,, never lived in the real world, fill me with dread.  Because they sound so... well, reasonable.  'The disabled will be protected' they say.  The 'real disabled...'  only who gets to decide who joins this group?  If the sadists who work for Atos have their way, it will be nobody. 

And this is what people fail to understand... I call it the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Let me show you how it works:

Stage 1.  We will get rid of the scroungers.  Everyone nods in agreement, because let's face it, nobody likes a scrounger, do they?

And this leads to Stage 2:  You are not ill.  Therefore you are a scrounger.  This is more worrying.  You know you are ill.  And you know you are not a scrounger.  You would like very much to have your old life back.  But you can't.  And there is little out there medically to help you.  Besides, your day is filled with trying to do simple things like finding your way around, or learning whether you've switched the cooker on or off.... but suddenly you're one of the bad guys.  You're part of the problem.  That can't be right, can it?

So you have to fight it.  You have to appeal.  And you still have to live, and function.  And suddenly it takes over your life.  You've found yourself on a side where you never thought to end up.  And inside your head you start yelling, 'Listen to me!' only of course nobody's listening.  Because you, my friend, have become one of the 'Other'.  The scroungers.  The problem.

But this is how the system works.  How it's intended to work.  People who know you are horrified.  'But you're ill!' they say, 'We know you are.' 
I'll let you in on a secret, shall I?  The government knows you're ill too.  They just want to cut your money.  And they reckon it's much easier to take the dosh from a blind person, or a man in a wheelchair, than it is to ask Vodaphone to cough up what they owe in taxes.